Sometimes Forge and I (wayward) are able to meet up with some friends and do cool stuff. So when we were invited by our friends at Film and Punishment, we knew we had to jump on the chance kupo! If you Enjoy watching a few guys (and ladies) get together, watch movies (bad and otherwise) and then torture each other with weird and unusual penalties then you should probley subscribe to Film and Punishment! bellow are a few links to the episodes Forge and I appeared in as well as a link the the ARCRAINE page where you should totally subscribe!

What better way to celebrate Final Fantasy’s 30th anniversary next year than with a game dripping with fan service and nostalgia. Equal parts classic final fantasy with things like the ATB (Active time battle) system and simple multi-tier dungeons, and the trademark final fantasy spirit of innovation mash the familiar with the new in a seamless swirl of delicious sugar coated nostalgia.

Following the fairytale story of amnesiac twins, Reynn and Lann; World of final fantasy immediately establishes itself as something new and at the same time familiar. The city the twins live in is very modern, complete with a classy mall and even a Starbucks style coffee shop where Lann (the brother of the two) seems to work. The character designs bring to mind another square enix classic Kingdom Hearts and that’s in no small part thanks to Tetsuya Nomura’s immediately recognizable since of style and fashion. The twins are very animated and the dialogue between them is a well-oiled comedy duo act that never ends.

As with most RPG’s from the 90s lann and reynn start the tale with amnesia and are soon tasked by the beautiful Enna Kros (maybe a god?!) to travel through a mystical portal to the world of Grymoire and capture cute monsters known as Mirages in hopes of regaining their memories. It’s light-hearted, and that’s a great thing in the current sea of grim dark, violent games in the market lately. It’s a breath of fresh air that is kept fresh by the constant dialogue and cheeky jokes, some might not like this approach but any fans of the back in forth in games like Kid Icarus: Uprising will be right at home with all the banter. Like all final fantasies the game has its moments of drama and seriousness but these never undermine the lighthearted cheesecake that makes up the majority of this story.

classic side view ATB combat

The combat system uses a final fantasy staple of old the ATB or Active Time Battle, which is an evolution of turn based combat where time continues to move even if you haven’t chosen a move during your turn. Luckily for those who are not familiar with their moves or what strategies they want to use there is a “wait” mode which is closer to a standard turn based system. If you’ve played final fantasy before this is all old news, but what happens when you throw in a dash of Pokemon and a hint of crystal chronicles spell stacking? You get the meat and potatoes of World of Final Fantasy’s combat.

There are over 200 Mirages (this games Pokemon) to collect and train. These mirages can transfigure (evolve) and level up using a popular leveling gimmick called a mirage board (a sphere grid/crystalarium etc). one of the exciting things for those of us who crunch the numbers and want to customize our mirages will be glad to know every mirage has its own unique grid! The rest of the strategy comes in how you stack your mirages on top of Lann and Reynn. Their abilities and spells also ‘stacking’ to create more powerful versions or unique skills all together which fosters switching out mirages and finding the unique strategies you enjoy using.

Minimalist UI during fights (with a circle bar for choosing moves)

This all leads into my favorite thing about World of Final Fantasy, it is a full, long, final fantasy game. I feel like the promotional material plays too much to the fan service aspect without doing the depth of the game justice. Yes classic final fantasy characters and monsters appear in world of final fantasy but the wealth of content and strategic depth is very much in line with any classic numbered final fantasy title. I haven’t finished the game yet myself but I’m well into 40 hours and only just reaching the final chapters with another 40-50 hours in post game content to chew through. Much like a Pokémon game it extends even further if you choose to imprism (catch) all the mirages and leveling them up fighting challenges in the colosseum or hunting all over grymoire for the really rare ones that are hiding in any of the dungeons hidden areas.

Speaking of cameos, world of final fantasy is littered to the gils (ha! So punny kupo) with characters from all over the final fantasy timeline. Well known and obscure, a lot of heroes live in grymoire; and by that I mean they literally live in Grymoire. Familiar locations and names are attributed to established histories and geology in Grymoir. Nibelheim from final fantasy VII fame is a mixture of the small village from that game and the massive reactor city of Midgar that appears in the same title; Tifa lives there and is training with her master (complete with her teenager-era cowboy costume) who has no connection or immediate knowledge of cloud who is doing his own thing as a mercenary for the game’s hero group known as the league of S. they are still the characters you know and love but as they would be in the setting which is like their own but not quite. With only one dlc planned (but the possibility for more/sequels if the game does well/fan reaction is positive) I’d love to see more characters or even areas to explore inspired by places I enjoyed in past games.

very kingdom hearts-esk

The last thing I wanted to cover because hey I like to ramble is the post-game content. Grymoire has many places to explore and a lot of secrets hiding in its depths. Another nod to classic final fantasy games is the inclusion of EX dungeons and hidden bosses. There are a few short dungeons that are packed full of rare and really high level mirages (level 70ish) as well as powerful hidden bosses that are made to test your mirage stacks to the limit. Once your done with that there is a basic but not unfamiliar colosseum mode that acts much like PVP in poke centers in Pokémon. Complete with online play and adjustable rules. If Online PVP isn’t your idea of fun there are also loads of challenging fights in the colosseum as well as a wealth of side stories and quests to find and complete leaving you with a lot of end game content (at least 100 hours of gametime)

Did I like World of Final Fantasy? I did, I loved it even. It’s accessible and a must play for any final fantasy fan, new and old. For those of us who remembered the entry level designed “Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest” this is a worthy successor to introducing new rpg fans to the world of final fantasy and delight those of us who have made our homes here. Its cute, its charming, and its deeper than the promotional material gives it credit for. Do yourselves a favor and don’t miss this even with the excitement of final fantasy XV at the end of the month!

The Breakdown:

[ + ] Story: a classic story full of every cliche from the genre you can imagine still finds heart where it matters and takes you on a journey you wont want to leave soon.

[+] Graphics: one of the best looking games for a title that shares its release with a handheld. everything fits despite the strange mix of very detailed character models and monsters with more cutesy simplified chibi designs, everything is easily recognizable even if its never had a 3d model before!

[ + ] Gameplay: the depth of a pokemon game with the stats and customization of a final fantasy game with a sphere grid like leveling system. the dungeons are simple and never last to long with plenty of simple puzzles and hidden areas and treasures.

[+] Replayablity: multiplayer and a 100hrs of content make this an adventure that will last, especially for thoes who want to level all their mirages.

[ + ] Opinion: a wonderful romp through classic final fantasy before the release of the much anticipated FFXV. a game that will fly under the radar but deserves its place in the Final Fantasy hall of fame as a MUST Play.

I rate World OF Final Fantasy a HONKING 5/5 Kupo!

:DLC NEWS:

it was announced recently that Sora from Kingdom Hearts will appear as a free DLC Summon for World of Final Fantasy early next year in celebration of the release of Kingdom Hearts 2.8 lookit this cute little guy!

Alright so I’m a little slow keeping up with all the latest stuff and I finally got to get my hands on “Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd”. I did the usual, sat figured out the controls (simple rhythm game) then tried out my first song on normal.

And lost horribly. Ok ok so maybe its just got a sharp learning curve? I switched to easy and gave it ago. Hey this time I made it through the song but whats this? “not clear” or “you failed” I was surprised to see this result when usually completing a song in other games in this genre means I succeeded, so I tried another song, and another, and another. Each gave me a curt “not clear” at the results screen. Normally my conditioned brain would just cut my loses but something stirred in my gamer brain that I NEEDED to clear at least one song before I turned it off for the night. So I picked a song and practiced.

It took a couple tries and a lot of patience but I eventually cleared my first song in Hatsune Miku’s insane rhythm game. This was a Feat worth sharing in my opinion and I got all excited and vowed to write this article as soon as I got up the next day. After sleeping on it I decided to instead write about a semi-unrelated topic and something that bleeds its way into the video game market as it grows in popularity.

“No One Loses”

it would seem that in America over the last decade or so (around when my generation started having kids) there was put into place a “No One Loses” policy, or also a “Participation Award” not to date myself but when you lost at something you were lucky to get noticed for participating and the reward was never as good as those succeeding. This taught a valuable lesson that both life isn’t fair at times, and that if you want something you need to work for it. Getting back on track this thinking has moved to video games as they have increased in popularity from a geeky past time to a huge industry.

Am I talking about casualization? Maybe. Games used to be about skill, about the achievement of daring your friends to follow your gaming Escapades (the origin of this practice BTW: “I can beat super metroid in 3 hours!” “Prove it”. now a days you’d get a trophy or achievement digitally to show you did) instead games have become a fast pace consumer engine. Not to say the goal wasn’t always to make money but they used to require skill to be considered “good” now its just how many of my friends can play at the same time (Super Smash i’m looking at your 8player mode)

a good evidence of this is how I actually pick games to play more on their “hours” instead of if the game is going to be a good experience. Take Tomb Raider which I rated highly on this site. I beat that game in roughly eighteen hours and rented it for two days from the “Redbox” service. I did the same with Dishonored, The Last of Us, and Bioshock Infinite. These games took little skill and were wrapped up in the time it takes most people to watch the season of a television show. Did that mean they were bad, not really but it demonstrates that the game was no longer about the achievement but the consumption.

they advertise “your going to die” on the box…

A lot of the time in games you get the “participation” equivalent of a pat on the back and are offered to play an easier difficulty. To be hand held through sections or the control taken from you in a “scripted” event that leaves all the cool stuff up to a video. There are a few games in the industry that actively don’t do this and those are games like Dark Souls (and the other Soul games) and as far as rhythm games go Hatsune Miku is a brutal experience for the casual market that the genre breeds in now.

To wrap up this rant I’d like to propose that we as gamers, attempt to support those games that ask for your skill rather than your consumption. Its ok to have casual games, but lets get back to the days when playing a game meant dedication and achievement instead of a shameless scheme to sell more copies to the most people.

alright lets get this out of the way, this isn’t really a review so much as a highly opinionated rant about one of the most polarizing titles in the Legend of Zelda franchise. If that’s not for you then I’d stop reading here, if not then here we go!

Ok so back in 2000 Nintendo released “TLOZ:Majora’s Mask” a pseudo continuation of the blockbuster “Ocarina of Time” on the nintendo64 platform. Majora would soon become a sort of black sheep of the franchise as it introduced one of the most annoying game mechanics ever invented “a timer” to the classic zelda formula. Link is straddled with the problems of a whole new kingdom and had a mere three days to complete his task before the moon crashed down and destroyed the world. Now to the young gamers of yesterday trying to complete this whole adventure in such a small time frame was just to insurmountable. And to their credit the game only briefly eludes to how to handle this restriction properly. Seeing as its the first major problem I’ll take that first!

A Race Against Time: the first three days of the game are spent helpless as a deku shrub as you wander around the enigmatic clock town attempting to find a way to the top of the towns titular “clock tower” this first three days serves as a tutorial of sorts for the rest of the game and something that the average gamer seemed to have ignored. You have a singular goal “surmount the clock tower and stop skullkid” you then have the puzzle of how to do that, not being allowed out of town you have to use what your provided, people. Over the course of three days link meets most of the towns people, hears their stories, their fears, and watches them go about their day to day tasks (this was a game with a whole town that moved like clockwork about their routines six whole years before the radiant AI system in elder scrolls oblivion) solving their immediate problems got you closer to your final goal and when you get to the top of the tower your given the key to your release from the fear of the three day timer. The ocarina of time and the ability to travel into the past.

But the solution is only half there, you now know that each three day period needs to be focused accomplishing one thing before time traveling like a time lord into the past with new knowledge. The other key was that the ocarina of time could speed up, AND slow down time. Effectively increasing your three days into almost six. With the pressure of having to do to much in such a short time you could simply choose to learn the events of a single character, tackle a dungeon, or try to solve a problem and then jump back in time with the knowledge and at times a new item that would help you make use of your next three days. Result: Time was not the problem!

ever present and terrifying

Next I’d like to talk about the atmosphere and what Majora’s Mask risked doing that few Zelda’s have attempted. These things are a dark storyline and a departure from series mainstays like ganon and the all important princess Zelda.

Majora takes link into dark waters that ocarina of time only briefly tread toward the end of it’s game. The people of Termina are very aware of their coming doom. Some choose to go about their lives resolute in completing the clock festival, others are spending the last few days with their families, all around link is confronted by hope, and crippling despair. The game begins with link losing his trusty ocarina and his faithful steed Epona only to be cursed and straddled with an abusive fairy. But being a hero he stands apart and chooses despite his deku form he will save termina from destruction. Everything from the music which grows frantic and distorted as day three approaches, the (at first) oppressive and ever present clock, and the stories represented lead this to be one of the most narrative tales in the series. Its filled with the grand dungeon crawling adventures that are common and the truly human stories involving each of the games many “masks” I’d like to avoid saying things like “it was ahead of its time” but it definitely lends it self to the statement as it attempted to do an “adult” zelda story before we had twilight princess six years later, and still manages to be the most complex game to date.

Also lets talk about the lack of ganon, the tri-force or zelda! Zelda herself only shows up in a brief flashback and there is no mention of the tri-force in termina. Some would argue that without these things it isn’t a real “Zelda” title and i’d like to argue that its instead a game that gives Link the spotlight story wise, something that hadn’t been done since ‘Link’s Awakening’ only two games prior. Instead link is alone with a damaged fairy, who together facing the last days on their bleak world attempt to bring hope to the hopeless. Past games had side-quests that never truly amounted to more than getting a piece of heart and even future titles like “wind waker” don’t ever attempt to make you as emotionally invested as they do in Majora’s mask.

Do I think Majora’s mask is underrated? Of course, do I believe that it gets more hate because of misunderstanding, I do. But it did have its flaws and these were that the game did not explain itself very well, that its bar for entry was pretty high and required you to have knowledge of schedules and meticulous schedule keeping. You couldn’t just flounder about, you had to actively take notes and learn behaviors and know when something inconsequential could mean to the past/present/future of termina. In that Majora’s mask asks the most from the player than any zelda game in the franchise and for that I believe it gets the hate AND adoration from the fan community.

I hope you enjoyed this breif rant of the legend of zelda majora’s mask. If you’d like to see me rant like this more about stuff alongside my normal reviews just tell me in the comments! For now keep playing games, and above all enjoy yourself kupo!

what happens when the creators of the sensational Uncharted Series decide to take their turn at the over saturated zombie genre? well you get The Last of Us, a heart pounding drama set in a world ravaged by a viral outbreak. now you might be asking yourself if this is just another Walking Dead pretender, maybe just another excuse for yet another zombie filled romp, it isn’t. The Last of Us takes the route of World War Z (the book not film) and instead focus on telling a very human story about a man who has lost so much and his bloody descent as he fights to preserve the one thing he might have left. without spoiling to much the first ten minutes of this game made me feel more than most triple A blockbusters and it was only getting started.

lets put the story to the side for a moment and instead focus on the gameplay. taking a note from their established Uncharted franchise, The last of us has tight realistic gun mechanics mixed with a grounding melee that makes you feel every jarring moment of the action. ammo is sparse and this lends well to the game’s survival horror vibe. you’ll be counting bullets and scrounging for materials with the games simple albeit necessary crafting system. every advantage is put to use as the over the top action movie antics from uncharted are toned down for more realistic and dangerous scenarios. Joel and Ellie (the game’s second and most important character) are not super heroes, nor do they have the survivablity of Nathan drake. gun shots are devastating, melee brawls leave you breathless as each encounter feels like its life or death. gone are the arena’s full of enemies and useful cover, while the game still supports these places your strategies and plans are forced to be more conservative, each missed shot, every wasted bandage might mean certain death if you encounter a group of bandits or clicker (one of the games few zombie variants, of which this one makes a distinct clicking noise and can instantly kill you if grappled).

For fans of the walking dead it will come to no surprise that human’s are some of the most deadly enemies in the last of us. where the zombies have very unique behaviors and rules they follow, human enemies can change on the fly adapting to your strategies and passing on their knowledge as the game progresses . learning to use your environment and what little you have on you to stealthily take out your enemies is vital. not to be restricting if your really resourceful you might take the Rambo approach and just find yourself a little low on supplies later. the zombies as I explained above all have their own rules, clickers tend to stay in place or patrol a short distance while clicking away in the dark. runners are your typical 28 days later variety choosing to chase you down and swarm you. then you have others that simply hide, waiting quitly for you to get close before attacking and decimating your few moments of calm between the games many set pieces.

you’ll learn that Bricks are your friend, and with patience can turn the tide of a battle

the basic premise for the story begins twenty years after the outbreak. america and possibly the whole world has fallen to a fungal parasite known as cordyceps ( a real parasite that typicaly infects ants! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps) the main character Joel is a smuggler through the now heavily controlled/screened cities of america. when a job goes south he is stuck with the enigmatic girl Ellie and together they have to get her across country to the terrorist group who claimed responsibility for the outbreak. what ensues is a rough ride through a world that has been reclaimed by nature both human and plant. buildings are rusting, plants have infiltrated everything and the desperation is palpable throughout. one of the high qualities of the last of us is the characterization. Joel is not a nice guy, and twenty years of violent survival have made him no end of enemies and even fewer friends. this is not a hero who makes clever one liners while swinging and climbing his way to the treasure. instead Joel is a brooding forty something who has seen the worst of the world and is ready to do the worst to see the next day. this is balanced by the pseudo innocence of Ellie who has seen plenty to make her ready to face the world, but yet still retains a youthful optimism. this world is all she has known and without spoiling anything she is prepared to do what she has to when the time comes.

I can continue to tell you that this is a not to miss experience and the story alone has a wide appeal to anyone who enjoys human drama and zombies. you’ll want more and have plenty of questions to ask by the end but let me say I have never been so emotionally exhausted by a game in my life, even now I think about how much it’ll take to go on that adventure one more time…its not easy.

the last bit I’d like to bring up is the game’s fantastic multiplayer. taking a que from social gaming, the last of us has you connect your facebook (if you have one) and uses your friendslist to fill out your ‘base’ with friends and family. you are then tasked with choosing a side in a conflict and then each and every decision, loss, and success you make affects your base, your families, and friends. you go into every match doing your best to survive while obtaining salvage which is crucial to the survival of your base. the goal of course is to make it to twelve weeks. each match comprising a single day. as your success grows and your base gets bigger you’ll feel the struggle of each person weighing on your in battle. if you don’t do good or better this next match those survivors who are sick wont get their medicine and die, if you lose everyone in your base then its game over and you are forced to start over on week 1. this is a subtle mechanic but it makes the multiplayer more than run and gun. I’ve never seen players play so cautiously. matches are tense and every encounter will leave you feeling the weight of your decisions so that you might learn the next time. the gameplay itself takes the realistic gunplay from the main game and thee unique ‘listen system’ (where you can stop and ‘hear’ to see players who are shooting or moving on the map) to put you in the shoes of a supply runner in the wilds of america. the maps are both vertical and big, offering lots of variety in how to properly assault the many supply points on a map or how to swiftly eliminate the opposition. just like the main game your character is not invincible and many times you’ll see a new recruit run out to ‘run and gun’ only to see them shot by an arrow or quickly dispatched by a rifle far away.

this is not a game for heroes only those willing to do what they need to, to survive. Finaly, the last of us is a must own experience, if you have either a PS3 or PS4 its a game you owe yourself to play. it does have a few problems (mostly the insistence on combat near the end of the main story) but what it does it does well. for thoes who liked “the road” “book of eli” or even “I am Legend” its a MUST BUY.

The Breakdown:

[ + ] Story: your going to feel alot in this wild ride into a possible future, this is the walking dead meets the road with a dash of I am legend, buckle up and prepare your heart.

[+] Graphics: it looks so good you’ll wish you could just run around looking at stuff instead of fighting. the detail is wonderful and you’ll want to speculate on how events led to certain set pieces

[ + ] Gameplay: your going to feel every bullet wound, every punch, every fall. this game has tight controls and even tighter mechanics, stealth, action, and traversal married perfectly.

[+] Replayablity: quite a few collectibles and a really engaging multiplayer means you’ll be keeping the last of us in your system for quite awhile before you’ll move to something else.

[ + ] Opinion: my game of the year for 2013, it is everything a game should aspire to be and has the appeal to get anyone into video games. absolutely amazing

(This Review will be on the core game through the 2.2 patch via the ps3 version of the game kupo!)

The Crystal Tower (a 24 man ‘casual’ raid)

For those who grew up with final fantasy, and anyone who has felt the sting of MMO fatigue in these past years from games failing to live up to their expectations or promises I’d like to bring your attention to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (that’s 14 for those who are roman numeral impaired) I’ll be going over the bits and pieces of what make this MMO a stand out success and easily one of the most accessible titles in the genre in ages, but first! I’d like to talk quickly about the short history of ARR and how it rose from the ashes of the failed Final Fantasy XIV.

Some might remember with bitter memories the short lived release of final fantasy XIV, built as a potential successor to the long running Final Fantasy XI (11) Final Fantasy XIV was square-enix’s next bid into the MMO scene in almost a decade. but for a company who had only released a somewhat successful MMO they had decided to put on the blinders to almost 12 years of progression in the genre. what gamers got on release had been a disaster and although a pretty game with flower pots (now infamous that had the same amount of detail/programming as a standard player character) it had scorned thousands from the then budding world of Eorzea. then stepped in Naoki Yoshida who at the time had been developing content for the failing MMO. given the raigns he orcestrated the unheard of when he and his team created an event that would save Final Fantasy XIV from the murky obscurity of Free 2 Play hell that so many floundering MMO’s tend to go.

He destroyed the world. now I know what your saying “Blizzard did that with World of Warcraft its been done!” but it is really one thing to reinvent a success than it is to take a failing MMO and turn it into what has now been heralded as an imposable comeback. scoring highly in almost every major publication in the industry. but this might already be things you’ve heard as a realm reborn has gotten quite alot of press, but trust in knowing its all well deserved. well now that I’ve given you some backstory it is this moogle’s turn to give you his review and tell you all about why I’m still playing A Realm Reborn and what makes it an MMO you should definitely not miss kupo!

Part I: Storytelling

what is final fantasy without a story of doomed lands and chosen heroes rising to save it? much like picking up a new numbered title in the aclaimed series and popping it in for a good 50+ hour adventure, ARR (a realm reborn) chooses to help ease any new players both to the genre and the world with a wealth of story driven quests in three starting zones. a knowledge of the events prior to your entrance to the world need not exceed the above video as Eorzea is a whole new beast now. taking a more hands on approach than other MMO’s you are the hero and the world is just waiting for your story to unfold which is handled organically as multiple storylines play out from the beginning of your adventure all the way to level 50 (the games current cap). thoes who like final fantasy but arn’t into the MMO format will be pleased to know the game largely supports a solo play style and only requires a group for dungeons and even streamlines this process with the “Duty Finder” mechanic but more on that shortly. going back to multiple storylines you’ll have the main tale progressing you toward a resolution with the empire that threatens to wipe out Erozea and its citizens, then you’ll also have a class based storyline which follows you for your first 30 levels, this subtle additional depth helps broaden the world little by little and the first chance you get to leave your starting nation is a heartfelt one that is very reminiscent of the first steps on a journey from home.

this brings me to the writing! never have I caught myself wanting to read quest dialogue and learn the stories of the people i am helping along the way. both clever, funny, and refreshingly mature it serves to put ARR on a different level than other MMO’s which sometimes opt for a more “kid friendly” approach. be aware that Eorzea is full of colorful characters and sexual references, boozing pirates, and heart rending death is handled appropriately. not to be exempt from the outright goofy at times ARR does its best to really show that a game with more text than voice acting can still be well done and that the strength of a good team of writers can make the difference between caring about the world and just skipping the text for game-play.

an example of “goofy” the game does a good job at keeping classic final fantasy humor alive

without going into it to heavily the main storyline is expectantly dramatic and fans of the final fantasy brand should not see anything to out of the ordinary. its engaging and sometimes a little over the top but serves to give you characters to cheer for and enemies to loath all the while keeping a steady pace toward the final confrontation at the end of the core storyline. while in a unqiue situation than its past incarnations this final fantasy allows the story to continue and in each content update (released every 3 months give or take) a small wealth of story missions push the narrative along long after you’ve beaten the game and scene the credits roll.

Part II: Are you ‘Hardcore’ or ‘Casual’

many MMO’s as of late have come under fire from their core audience or the “Hardcore” group as being overly casualized to welcome new players. ARR offers an approach at content that allows both parties to be satisfied while not sacrificing content for either side. this is done both in dungeons and in various end game content. for instance! I am a casual player, I play a few hours a day maybe a few times a week, I can play a few dungeons, go on some quests and still make some progress toward armor and gear i’d need for later content. the game has two end game raids one of which is geared toward players like me who don’t have the time for a static group (a few players that meet up at regular times during the week) and still enjoy epic fights and engaging stories all the while being accessible to my play style (this is the crystal tower 24 man raid) while a similar person who has more time to work on harder content has access to a much more demanding raid called the coil of bahamut which is made for those people who want the hard core experience they have come to expect with end game content.

while not the only example the game does its best to allow both sides of this dangerous line to enjoy a game that feels made for them. and has systems involved that can easily give a casual player the tools to become a hard core player without sacrificing the challenge or achievement of those who came to the game with those abilities or knowledge. this is done with something called “GuildHests” which serve as MMO party tutorials. these guildhests actually form you up with other players for a short instanced challenge which generally teach you about party and team dynamics of your class and their part in it, thus making the daunting task of joining a party for a dungeon less stressful for those new to the MMO scene and providing less hand holding for the vets who are running content with new players.

there are countless other bridges between the two extremes like dailies (quests that can be repeated daily) and multiple difficulties for most end game dungeons that help both sides play the way they want how they want and this is really something i believe other games should walk away with. that creating more content instead of sacrificing content can help make your whole player base happy and I believe is one of the major reasons that ARR has become the success it has.

Forge and I who both represent the two sides of the player base enjoying a boss together (that’s War in the thong)

Part III: Gameplay (Combat,Exploration,Crafting etc)

while deservedly this section could contain a whole site to itself I’m going to go over my experiences and try to cover what I’ve been through on ARR. Combat, now to many this is a make it or break it topic and one that needs examination, Arr doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel but what it does do it does well. using hotbar (a bar with skills that use timers known as cool downs) combat you have to pay attention to positioning (for some classes) and rotations (a continuous cycle of skills in a combo). these are all things that most MMO’s do and ARR does them solidly, the classes are balanced and the trinity of “tanks, dps, healer” is how they are broken up.

instead of spending alot of time developing new battle systems and trying crazy new mechanics they focused on polishing combat and group dynamics into a finely honed machine. when a group is working together its amazing and everyone should feel useful, the skills are delivered in a linear format and for some this might be disappointing as there is little in way of character customization class wise but this is sacrificed in lue of a more solid and dependable party system when you que up for a random group thus cutting out the “does this person have the right skills?” and more “whats their armor level”

returning to classes there are 17 combat rolls which include the ‘jobs’ that you learn at level 30 of any of the combat classes. these range from gladiator to bard. and include alot of final fantasy fan favorites like black mage and lancer (JUMP!) all of the classes/jobs siphon into one of three party rolls and those are tank, dps (damage per second), and healer. I could go into this group dynamic but thats certainly told somewhere better on an MMO site kupo!

Exploration doesn’t last long in ARR as the world feels just big enough to be interesting yet small enough that by fifty you should have all of the zones well memorized and locations by name. that’s not to say the zones aren’t interesting and there are still some locations that beg for a future dungeon location or even a mysterious event but for now know that every zone is chock full of monsters and events called “FATES” which we will cover in the next section. while the zones themselves aren’t massive with the exception of Corethas (its easily 2 zones huge) they are brimming with atmosphere and their own challenges like long drops and huge monsters to defeat.

from the Coil of Bahamut (24 man Hardcore raid)

Crafting and gathering also have their own classes which run the familiar fair of “go to this node, craft this thing” to interesting minigames which take timing and skill know how. as each gathering/crafting class is just that you can level each one to level 50 on its own. going to a side another unique thing about ARR is that there are no real need for Alternate characters you can level every class, and every job on a single character. get bored of fighting the front lines? why not become a mage, want to stop fighting all together? then its time to fish. the game offers quite a large selection of things to do as well. the fisherman for example (that’s my gathering class kupo!) there is a fishing guide which tells you where you have fished and what fish can be caught there once you catch them and how many are left before you finish. on top of that there is gear for my class and different baits I need to use at different locations which is pretty in depth considering this is a gathering class which most games regulate to just node surfing.

Part IV: Patches and new content/ Dev’s who Listen

I’ve attempted to cover with some clarity the basics of the game and what it has to offer but after spending a few months with the game and having a character with a few classes what is there to do you might ask? where is the end game? or perhaps there are things you’d like fixed? this is probably the best part of this game to date and that has been the open development and creation of new content for ARR. after the failure of ffxiv Yoshida started a blog called “letters from the producer” which was created to regain the trust of the player base and let them in on new things being created or done to the world of ARR. the turn around and feedback from the devs on various issues in the game has been astoundingly quick kupo! the hard work put into all aspects of this title show through in the quick response to problems, and understanding from the dev team.

as for endgame? well when the game first launched it had 16 dungeons and three primal trials (fights with summons ifrit, garuda, titan) as well as the first 5 parts of the coil of bahamut, after 4 short months (delay due to server stability) extreme modes were added for the primal trails, the casual raid the crystal tower was opened, and two hard mode versions of former dungeons were opened up. as if this content was enough there was a large number of fixes which helped make the game even more accessible and changed the focus from grind to having fun while trying to achieve that i90 gear score. 3 short months after that the newest patch hit which added more dungeons, more bosses, more quests. the game has grown exponentially since launch is perhaps the words I’m trying to find. and It appears to have no end in sight as all the things that were added point to a brighter future for ARR. oh did I mention that the coil of Bahamut got five more parts? with the crystal tower upgrading in the next patch the games main two raids are becoming bigger and better.

will you have things to do in endgame? YES and that goes for all skill levels.

defeating The Primal Garuda

I will undoubtedly have another Review coming soon that discusses the Guild systems (free companies) as well as dungeons in the game and my experiances. but let this serve as an enthusiastic view at why you should be playing FFXIVARR!

By the Way if you ever want to party with this moogle you can find me, forge, and war on the Gilgamesh server

A misguided man once said “a slave chooses, a man obeys” and in Irrationals final game before closing their doors that phrase is put to the test as the familiar formula of a man with amnesia takes up his gun again to fulfill a destiny he might not be entirely in control of.

set in 1912, on the floating city/country of Columbia you play the desperate smuggler Booker Dewitt as he is charged with returning a girl to a mysterious benefactor. without going into to much of the history columbia is now in a civil war that is steeped in a myriad of social issues (race/class war, religion, substance abuse etc) themes that have been played out in rapture but brought into the light in far more intense ways in columbia. that being said once more without giving away the ending (which is almost worth the price of admission) you have seen this story before and should expect some familiar heavy handed social “shock” scenes.

moving on, bioshock infinite shares the same free form first person shooter combat you’ve come to expect from the franchise. there are plenty of ways to exploit your environment and use your plasm-excuse me- tonics to turn the flow of combat in your favor. weither due to time or funding perhaps many of the purposed game mechanics made it into the title half finished. only a few areas really support the fun rail traversal mechanic and where elizabeth was vaulted as useful and interesting she boiled down to an ammo resupply in combat. had the game had more funding or time perhaps it could have fleshed out these things but what we got by the end was a confusing jumble of ideas that melted into chaotic fire fights ala the end of bioshock 2 which left me wanting more of the gameplay trailer that proceeded the release back at e3 2011.

Elizabeth at times could be charming but don’t expect to find her exploring the environment.

Going back to Elizabeth, I’m sure you might have heard after the game’s release about how amazing and truly unique Elizabeth was and I had to wonder if I had gotten a bad copy of the game. my Elizabeth was flat and offered only occasional interaction that made her feel much like any other tag along NPC some of which did her role better and didn’t even have a physical body to go with them (Cortana I’m lookin at you girl!) there were times when I really enjoyed her being by my side (pick up the guitar you’ll know it when you find it) but mostly she just didn’t impress, one thing she did do flawlessly tho was keep me supplied with ammo when things got hot kupo!

while not containing a multiplayer gametype Bioshock infinite does contain a few collectables that make going back and finding each one rewarding although it shouldn’t take more than a play through or two to find them all for the avid collector.

I would like to mention that I did not play the DLC as it did come out quite a awhile after the release and if a goty version comes out or I can get it on a deal I might go back to see the “burial at sea” storyline but just going off the base game I can say its a worthy effort and not a bad time. you’ll feel uncomfortable, you might even really care about elizabeth and booker’s story. but I think you should stay for the scenery. I found myself absorbing the world like a sponge. Colombia is atmosphere defined and its got little things tucked into every crazy crevice, to say you’ll want to take screenshots would be an understatement as the game truly has vista after vista of unique locals that will keep you entranced even when you have everything under the sun trying to kill you.

Overall it’s a wonderfully atmospheric game that has some hard stories to tell. if not for the mar in combat I’d say this was the best bioshock so far but the key elements just were not there in the end. defiantly a buy for fans of the first two and a rent for anyone else kupo!

The Breakdown:

[ – ] Story: I both love and hate the story within Bioshock Infinite, at times its unflinchingly realistic to the period it takes place and others it tries hard for the twists of past bioshock games and ultimatly leave the player confused.

[+] Graphics: pretty fantastic and what has been come to be expected with the Bioshock brand, stay to see the scenery if the gameplay isn’t for you.

[ – ] Gameplay: a typical first person shooter with some interesting ideas that are ultimately half baked. a more fleshed out rail system and better interaction with the lead Elizabeth would have given this a plus.

[+] Replayablity: more replayablity than past titles (not counting bioshock 2’s breif multiplayer) it still only warrents 2 play throughs with some careful combing.

[ + ] Opinion: the swan song of the bioshock franchise and done well, half baked mechanics and the trademark twisty ending are the weakest part of this package but is made up for in solid level design, and some amazing veiws.

I rate Bioshock Infinite a solid 3 Kupo!

you really just drank some strange liquor from a random guy…booker…omg